Thorn's Resolve
by Crowwolf
Summary: Ok a friend of mine actually gave a great idea and instead of this being a one-shot it's going to be Warthorn's story after the war and his life with starlark and then with Xena. "Discontinued for now"
1. Thorn's Resolve

**A/N: Ok I got bored and can't think of a few things for the next chapter of "Of Shadow and Light" so I've decided to make this; It goes back in time and we how Warthorn lived a bit and I wanted to address how Grage became what he is. This is the end of the war that frees all of the clans.**

Death of a friendship

"Keep moving Thorn! Do you want to die in the mud?!" Nathan yelled out at me as we were running through this hell hole of a battle ground. "Heck no; I'm not dying today!" I yelled out at my friend. Two wolves jumped out of nowhere and tackled Nathan to the ground! "Nathan!" I yelled and tackled both of them off him taking one to the side and felt my fangs meet his throat even as his bit my shoulder and felt as he died on top of me with his fangs still in my shoulder as the rain kept hammering down on top of us.

I felt the wolf being pulled off me and the fangs coming out of my shoulder though one was still stuck in there. And I looked up to see Nathan and Philip and the rest of my squad looking at me and I got up with a slight grunt of pain.

Star our medic came up and said "Let me see to that." And she took the fang out of my shoulder causing me to yelp. "Oh come on I've seen wolves that've had their leg almost torn off. This is nothing." She said holding the fang up and smiling. "Yea but it wasn't in you." I said back and is all she did was laugh at that.

Grage came up and said "So what are we going to do about Nirn?" he asked reminding me of our mission. We are to go behind enemy lines and kill the enemy leader once and for all.

"We keep going; he's not that far from where we are so we should be able to still get down with the element of surprise on our side." I told them. And they all nodded in agreement and we moved once again toward the enemy line hearing the snarls and howls of pain from wolves.

_I hope dad's alright._ I thought vaguely as we kept up the move but before we got any further Grage fell behind and A large group of Harrkorians jumped out of Nowhere again and surrounded us! "Grage help!" Star yelled as she just made a wolf back off from the assault.

But is all he did was sit down and watched as the wolves attacked us with a smile on his face. And then out of the bushes came Nirn and he sat down by Grage with the same smile on his face- one of grim satisfaction. "Grage what are you doing!?" I yelled at my friend. Then I noticed something I had not really acknowledged but now seemed so obvious. "Surprised Thorn?" Grage said with self satisfaction in his voice. "I guess you never thought was the only son of Nirn now did you?" he mocked at me. "Silence son, now make your demand so we get this over with." Nirn said. "Of course, Star." He said her name to get her attention. "What you bastard?" she snarled at him. "You can escape death…if you only come with me; you can be the mate to a real chieftain…and not a weakling like him." He said shooting a hate filled glance at me.

She looked at him and what she said next wanted me to kiss her, "Now why would I want to go with a piece of slime like you when the one I love is right next to me." She said motioning to me and I couldn't help but have a giant smile on my face. That was unexpected; and I just felt myself forget about this whole war and looked at her and saw her silver fur shine in the rain that kept hitting her.

And then I looked back at Grage and saw his anger at that comment and the fact that she was in love with me and not him. At least if I was going to die I'd have that knowledge in my head. However before he could say anything Nirn raised his paw and four wolves were leading a battered and bruised grey blue wolf out of the bushes and I started when I realized it was my father! "Dad!" I yelled and Nirn smiled as he heard the anguish in my voice and he turned to my father and said "So, Vlad, we finally meet. The leader of War-eye clan, I had expected you to fight a lot harder than your son has. HAHA!" he laughed and clawed my father once more and that only succeeded in making me even madder. We were still surrounded by wolves on both sides when I then heard my father start to speak.

"There is a difference here my friend, cah! You are a coward in that you won't fight me one on one, but you'll fight me if you have a hundred wolves backing you up." And here he bowed his head and said something inaudible. Nirn moved closer to his enemy and said "What was that you…ah-ah!" and he backed from the slash my father had delivered and he let out a howl and twenty War-eye wolves pounced on the enemy Harrkorians and forced them away from us. "You'll die before I leave!" and I turned to see Grage jump at me with a clear shot to my throat!

Time seemed to stop and out of nowhere I heard a wolf yell "Over my dead body!" and I saw my father lunge at Grage having one of his fangs tear out his eye and they both went over the edge of the ridge.

"Dad!" I yelled again and ran to go where they had landed. I heard Starlark, Philip, and Nathan running behind me and we finally reached where they had crashed landed.

Grage was nowhere to be found but I saw my father and I ran up to him "Dad!" and he looked up to me and flashed a smile at me and said "Come here." And I approached him and lowered myself down by his head so I could hear him talk. I barely registered a wolf coming by and telling us that the Harrkorians were retreating. He went quite when he saw us and watched on.

"You fought bravely out there…let no one tell you differently, understand?" he asked me and I nodded to sad to talk. But he wasn't done. "Good…now I don't have much longer…so listen closely; you have earned two things…one is the rank of General of the War-eye clan…and with the last of my power I have I give to you the title of war with your name so all will remember, that it is the war-eye that are amongst the greatest of warriors." And everyone heard this but it also shocked me the most because only the greatest of warriors in the War-eye clan are ever given the title of war. It was put on with ones name so all may know that he or she was a great warrior.

But through these thoughts my father leaned upwards toward me and whispered into my ear "And take care of that girl of yours; wolves like her, only come around rarely." He said to me and laid his head down and took one last breath and passed away. A light wind came then; signifying that his spirit had past.

I heard someone come up beside me and put a paw on my shoulder and I looked over to see the brown eyes of the love of my life…Starlark. "I'm sorry thorn." And I felt something come over me and I hugged her. After a startled reaction she returned the gesture and I then released her saying "Sorry I… I don't know what came-" but was interrupted by her kissing me.

"Don't be." She said and I saw her eyes having only love for me and I decided I had waited long enough "I love you." I told her saw her eyes bright up at that and she kissed me again. "I love you to." She whispered into my ear after we broke. We stared into each other's eyes until we heard Nathan yell "Hey look!" and we both looked over and saw a sight like never before.

Over the hills and forests that we could see from where we were standing we could see the sun rising up from the horizon shading everything into a golden radiance and brightening the darkness that had fallen over the vale in where we had fought for our freedom.

I looked at Starlark at my side and marveled at how the sunlight shone on her fur seeming it to be made out of pure silver and gold from the light and I felt a smile on my face and turned once more to look at the sun rise.

_Yes, life will go on and even though many of us have lost something at least now we can rebuild. And who knows what could come out of it? I can only see happiness and peace coming out of this…and perhaps love._

And I once again looked at Starlark and her beauty and thought to myself. _Yes love will defiantly come._

And a new day had dawn on the darkness.

**A/N: Thank you for reading this please read and review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This is going to be a less frequently updated story of because Of Shadow and Light is priority story and right now I'm having a bit writers block on that front and I feel as if I should prove to you guys who read my stories that I'm not dead. Enjoy.**

Chapter 2: The First Ally

The sun rose up on the remnants of what had been a ferocious battle and spread further into the now united clan's territory into the War-eye territory and into the den of one particular young War-eye.

Thorn felt the sun hit his eyes, rousing him from the dark dreams that had plagued him. He raised his head looking around trying to find his father when the memory of what had occurred the other day came back in a flash and he felt a fresh wave of grief and anger.

Grief at his father's death; and anger at his friend's betrayal that inevitably led to his father's death as well as many others that day; Grage would pay in time in some way but for now Thorn had other priorities to deal with right at the moment. Foremost amongst them was to do what is father expected of him and take command of the clan. 'And I have to do it before anyone else tries to take it the position before I get to it and also to find out who my enemies are and who my friends are.' Thorn thought.

However the number ONE priority at the moment was just stirring right beside him and Thorn looked over to his right side to see the love of his life Starlark's light brown eyes open and her head lift off the ground and look around and bright up at the sight of him.

Before Thorn could say good morning Starlark pulled him into a kiss and Thorn returned it and they both closed their eyes to savor the moment.

"AHEM!" a voice suddenly said at the entrance and both their eyes shot open and they both looked over to see a light grey wolf with two lines of silver running along his shoulders to the base of his tail. This was pack lord Norfolk of the War-eye clan. He was in charge of black forest pack of the clan, one of the fierce fighters ever born, one of the wisest of the pack lords ever born…and he was Starlark's father.

"Well this is nice way to start the day." He said with a frown painting his face. The two young couple standing before him blushed deeply and looked away from each other and moved away from each other as well.

"Dad, it's not what you're thinking…I made the first move!" Starlark said hastily to try and avoid her father killing Thorn for thinking he tried to have a little "fun" with her.

At first Norfolk just looked at them with a hard stare until Starlark and Thorn started fidgeting in discomfort. Then his lips started to twitch in a failing attempt to hide a smile that after a minute he broke out laughing hard and the two young lovers looked at each other thinking he may have just lost his mind.

After another minute lord Norfolk caught himself and said "It's quite alright you two. After what happened the other day; neither of you two can be considered to be young'uns ever again…no one can." He said with a slight frown of thought at what it had taken to gain the other clans freedom from the Harrkorians.

"So sir, is there a reason why you came?" Thorn said to get the conversation going and to get lord Norfolk's mind away from the past. It was best forget about the horrors of that war.

Lord Norfolk shook his head to clear his mind and came back to the reasons why he was Vla…Warthorn's den. "Well you see Warthorn I came actually to get you. We need to head over to the gathering den so we can start seeing how to introduce you as the new leader of the War-eye…before anyone else tries to destroy what your father has made into of today." Lord Norfolk said with just a hint of anger thinking of the few who would defiantly oppose Warthorn's right to rule the clan.

Thorn nodded at this, "I agree. Let's get going." He said and with that the three of them got up and started walking out. But before Thorn got out Starlark held him back and asked "What do you want to me to call you…Thorn or Warthorn?" she asked looking into her lovers eyes.

Thorn looked into her warm brown eyes and said, "I just want to be called Thorn by you, but you have to call me Warthorn when others are around so that way no one thinks you are disrespecting me." Starlark nodded at this and said, "Understood." And started to walk out only this time to be pulled back gently by Thorn and she looked at Thorn in confusion.

He leaned in and whispered into her ear, "You'll have to call me Warthorn, but I will always be your thorn." And he leaned back to stare into her eyes.

She looked into his and they both nodded in understanding and they quickened to catch up with Lord Norfolk; both feeling the hand of fate closing in on them…and ready to meet it.

**A/N: Well we're about to find out how the War-eye choose their leaders. We'll see the next chapter. Please review. **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Alrighty the next chapter to 'Thorn's Resolve' I hope you all enjoy it. Btw I had changed my mind about showing politics of the War-eye clan. I just can't do it so we'll see. Also if your fan of "Of Sorrow and Peace" I'll be bringing in another character from there. **

Chapter 3: Star's wondering

We walked for a bit but not too fast to the gathering den since it was still morning and even some of the pack lords would also be taking their time. I had some questions for my father anyways so I decided to break the ice.

"Hey dad, mind if I ask a question?" I asked and he looked at me and nodded yes while I felt Thorn look at me curiously wondering what I was going to ask…I was going to have some fun with this.

"Why were you so ok about me and Warthorn kissing?" I asked and felt Thorn tense beside me in embarrassment and I looked over to see him blushing and looking at me with his mouth slightly agape and I lifted my paw and closed it for him. "You may want to keep that closed. There could be flies around!" I said jokingly.

I heard my dad chuckle at that and I looked at him and saw he had a mischievous look in his eye but I think Thorn thought it was more anger because he shifted a little uncomfortably as we kept walking to the den.

"Well. My reasons why I didn't freak out is because of the fact that one: You two are old enough to make your decisions about what to do with your lives. Two: Vlad would haunt me in my sleep if I had killed Warthorn."

"Huh?" Thorn said looking at my father wide eyed about the possibility that he had just barely escaped death. My father flashed him a reassuring smile, "Your father scares me as all hell Warthorn, even in death, so if you will I wasn't about to kill you because I didn't want Star upset and your father as well." He said looking at me then back to Warthorn.

I looked at my dad like he was slightly insane; he just basically said he thought about killing Warthorn simply because I had kissed him. My dad could be a bit overprotective sometimes.

There was an awkward silence for a minute, and then my dad continued. "Well the third thing was that I knew that you wouldn't have gone any further than a kiss, not to mention that if you had tried to go any further I'm sure Starlark would've killed you like she nearly did to Baldor." He said then kept walking meanwhile I was blushing madly that my dad would tell my boyfriend about my ex.

Warthorn looked at me and asked "Baldor?"

"I'll tell you after you fix the rest of the clan." I said and sped up to catch up with my dad wanting to avoid looking Warthorn in the eye. Baldor had been my first boyfriend had he had mostly used her to try and get to one thing. He suffered for that, that she definitely made sure of at least.

I heard Thorn walking behind me so I knew either he was thinking about something…or staring at my hips moving side to side. Either way he was probably thinking of something so I slowed till we were walking side by side to see him staring at the ground; so he was thinking.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked when I saw the frown of worry on his face.

He started at my question since it was obvious he was in a deep train of thought and wasn't expecting my question in the least. He looked at me and smiled nervously but it then disappeared and he got that frown again.

I hated seeing him like that so I leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek that caused him to blush and look at me and I gave him a quick one on the lips before he could say anything causing him to blush even deeper. I smiled at how cute he looks when he blushes.

"You can tell me Thorn and you know it." I told him with a smile. He smiled back and rolled his shoulders just a little uncomfortably.

"I guess you're right." He sighed and looked at me for a moment before saying "I'm just worried about the future is all." He said looking up at the sky.

I kept quiet; I knew he would continue with his thoughts sooner or later.

He sighed again with his head still in the air and said, "I'm worried about if I would be a good chieftain, I'm worried about weather this whole peace thing will go up in smoke and we'll have another war…and I'm worried about Grage coming back and killing someone I care about." He added while looking at me with worry clearly written in his eyes.

I looked at him and smiled reassuring. "Thorn, that won't happen…listen how about I make a deal with you?" I asked thinking that what I have in mind may help ease his.

He looked at me with an inquisitive look and said, "Alright. What is it?" he asked.

I smiled at him and said, "What if I train to be an alpha for the fighting skills to better protect myself?" I said. I thought he may be happy about this but the look on his face said he may be more…apprehensive.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

I gave him a look, "Of course I'm sure!" I said a little irritated that he think I couldn't take it. But he nodded at this and I saw his face get a small smile.

"I was just making sure I wasn't influencing you to go for it on impulse is all." He told me with a warm smile. I smiled back…and just like that the moment was ruined.

"We're here." We heard my dad say and we looked forward to see a large cave den in front of us. It was clearly big enough to hold up to twenty wolves if not more.

"Well there goes that moment." Thorn said and started moving into the cave and I started going in with him when I was stopped by my dad.

"I'm sorry Starlark but you'll have to wait out here for us. This is a bigger clan meet than most." He told me kindly but firmly.

I saw Thorn look at me and smile, "Don't worry. I'll come and look for you when were done in here Star." He told me and moved into the den.

"And if he doesn't I'll make sure he does." My father said winking at me and walked into the den.

I wasn't really complaining because I hated around listening to those two pack lords Vorg and Vyrwolfen talking about how they should have more territory.

In the War-eye clan we elect our general who is in charge of the whole of the clan. There are seventeen Pack lords who make up the whole of the clan with one being the leader the others approach with problems or complaints. The odd number of pack lords helped to keep there being any kind of draw and causing a possible civil war amongst the packs.

The seventeen packs were, the dark forest pack, which is my own pack. The lighting pack, the war-eye pack which is the largest of them all, the ridge back clan, the light forest pack, the snake skin river pack, the north wood pack, the south wood pack, the east wood pack, the west wood pack, the north west wood pack, the north east wood pack, the south west pack, the south east pack, the mountain stream pack, and the rock crusher pack.

All of them had their own chieftains but it was the War-eye pack that had brought them all together and is what we are today. They were also the pack that got many of the wolves that had been in the Yellowstone national park out of there when the humans were massacring wolves left and right.

That had been a harrowing time to say the least, at least according to the Lore walker pack. That pack had no say in the politics of the clan but they were highly respected. One of the reasons why they weren't to have any say was because they were a nomadic pack that went around telling stories to the other packs and clans.

But they were also welcomed in every clan because of their skills as healers.

I shrugged and moved off thinking I may be able to kill time by hanging out with my friends.

I wondered around for a while trying to one of my friends and did but they were busy and didn't need my help when I offered so I kept walking until I found myself walking along beside the river.

I was starting to think that this was doing to be a boring day waiting for Thorn to come back from the meeting but then I noticed a patch of white next to the river and smiled when I recognized Thorn's friend Jor.

I walked up behind him noticing he was slouched and looking at something across the river and I looked and saw my friends Jenna and Christina across the river talking while he was hidden by some bushes.

"What you staring at?" I asked smiling and he wheeled around blushing to see me.

"Starlark you know better than to sneak up on me!" he said holding his chest trying to catch his breath.

Jor was an unusual wolf. He was an arctic wolf that lived more with his clan further up north but came down from time to time to study our healing arts. He was starting to show up even most of our masters. In other words, he was a natural at the healing arts. But one of the most things that stuck out most for people was not his snow white fur but his eyes. They were both different colors; his left eye was a luminous ice blue that seemed to glow with serenity and peace but his right eye was a deep crimson red giving you the impression that his eye was filled with the blood of his enemies.

It was ironic that he was also a medic because he was also a strong wolf, one of the strongest in fact. But I still wanted my question answered.

"So, who were you staring at?" I asked with a mischievous smile.

Jor gave me an annoyed look but turned around and stared back across the water. I followed his gaze and knew who I would look at…it was Jenna.

Jenna was a chocolate wolf who was also an Omega like me and was one of the best of the whole clan. She was also very popular around the clan also and is considered one of the hottest females around by most of the males.

I looked at Jor who had a longing look on his face, "You know you should try to talk to her." I told him knowing he would know who I mean.

He looked at me a little wide eyed and said, "Jenna? What do I tell her? That she is one of the most beautiful wolves I have ever seen and that her body is one of the most beautiful as well, or would she find that creepy? Or maybe that her healing skills are great and far exceed my own or would she think I don't have a personality?" he said with some anger at the fact he was scared to talk to her.

I gave him a look and he looked back at me…that was when I punched him hard in the shoulder.

"OW!" he said rubbing his shoulder. "What was that for?" he asked looking at me like I was insane.

"Because your acting like an idiot!" I said raising my eyebrows to add emphasis. "You know better; just be yourself when you're talking to her Jor. She gives people a chance you know." I told him wanting him to make a dang move already.

He shifted a little and looked at me then over at Jenna. Then he took a breath and started wading through the water to the other side to talk to her.

I smiled watching as he started talking to my two friends but then I hear a small cough behind me and turned to see a red wolf behind me.

"Excuse me, are you Starlark?" He asked. I nodded yes and he then said, "Right, your father wanted me to tell you to meet him at Thorn's Den." And with that he ran off. Obviously a messenger and had other messages to deliver.

I watched him leave for a minute then started to walk to Thorn's place wondering what they needed to talk to me about.

When I got there I saw Thorn crouched near the entrance with a cut on his shoulder. I ran up to them.

"What happened?" I said worried that the wound may be deep but was glad to see it wasn't. It was just painful for him because it was also where I had pulled that fang out of his shoulder.

"Someone tried to kill me." Thorn said calmly but I knew him enough to know he was extremely angry. He always acted calm even when he was angry.

"What! Who did it I'll kill them myself!" I said; I was outraged that someone tried to kill the love of my life.

Warthorn smiled at me reassuringly, "Then it was a good thing you weren't there. We caught him and he's now being interrogated to find out who hired him to kill me. This is nothing." He added gesturing to the cut.

"Either way it's best you don't go anywhere without somebody with you Warthorn." My dad said to Thorn. And he nodded in agreement.

I thought about it and said "And it's best you don't sleep alone either so whether you like it or not I'm sleeping with you." I said and that earned a smile on his face and a blush and my dad grunted about that.

"Only because you two are dating anyways. Now I have to get going." He said and looked at both us with narrowed eyes. "Don't either of you do anything you'll both regret." And with that he walked off. As for me I was blushing as well.

I coughed a bit and asked, "So…what happened exactly?" and he turned to look at me. "What happened was when the meeting was done-by the way we also have two suspects already- and as we all were leaving someone came out of nowhere and jumped me. Luckily I saw him coming even though the guards didn't. Both I and your dad went off at them for letting their guard down simply because the meeting was over. That's usually when an assassin attacks. Not during." He added with some feeling.

"Right, well you should get some rest to let that heal." I said and he grunted in response but went inside and lies down on his bedding and fell asleep in the next few minutes.

I stayed at the entrance of the den to keep watch until nightfall then went and lay down next to him to sleep, dreaming of what was to come in the next few months.

**A/N: One more chapter to add to the list. A small announcement btw to everyone who reads this is that me and my friend HLK had made a forum and wanted to tell you guys are welcome to join. You just have to contact me or Humphrey Loves Kate via pm if you want join and we'll tell you anything you want to know about. **


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